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The City Council voted Monday that the city's buffer zone law needs to be amended to stand up to a Supreme Court ruling that found a similar Massachusetts law unconstitutional in June.

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"Their test was it wasn't neutral," said Chip Mason, the Ordinance Committee chair. "In essence in balancing the patient's rights versus First Amendment rights it weighed too much on one side."

First the city's attorney recommended Burlington's buffer zone law get another look. Now, the City Council is endorsing a signed statement of guidance for the committee.

A section reads: "We are committed to urgently investigating and supporting legally defensible alternatives that ensure women's safety and access to healthcare services. We view this work as a top priority for the city of Burlington."

"If women are being obstructed on their way into these clinics that is not permissible under our ordinance," Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger told WPTZ. "We are going to continue to enforce that."

The city's mayor says there are obvious changes that need to be made.

Two ideas being considered are a smaller buffer zone or an 8-foot bubble that the Supreme Court has ruled constitutional.

Monday's vote to repeal the law makes it OK for protesters to distribute literature or engage in sidewalk counseling while the committee draws up new provisions.

"This in essence strikes it from the books," Mason said. "It's not just that's it's on the books and not being enforced, this means it's gone."

The committee says it will be working with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, city staff and the public to create meaningful and constitutional alternatives that protect reproductive freedom for women.